Book Review: I See London I See France

Rating: 4/5

From Goodreads: I see London, I see France, I see Sydney’s underpants.

Nineteen-year-old Sydney has the perfect summer mapped out. She’s spending the next four and half weeks traveling through Europe with her childhood best friend, Leela. Their plans include Eiffel-Tower selfies, eating cocco gelato, and making out with très hot strangers. Her plans do not include Leela’s cheating ex-boyfriend showing up on the flight to London, falling for the cheating ex-boyfriend’s très hot friend, monitoring her mother’s spiraling mental health via texts, or feeling like the rope in a friendship tug-of-war. 

As Sydney zigzags through Amsterdam, Switzerland, Italy, and France, she must learn when to hold on, when to keep moving, and when to jump into the Riviera…wearing only her polka-dot underpants.

This book was so much fun!  As a busy college student, an escape to the other side of the world was just what I needed.  

This book is all about Sydney, a girl who has just finished her freshman year of college.  She still lives at home so she can take care of her mother who is agoraphobic.  But when her best friend Leela needs someone to travel the world with her, Sydney for the first time sets off on her own, and goes on an adventure across Europe.

This book was a really fun read.  It's super light and fluffy, but has some more substantive themes as well, such as Sydney dealing with the mother's illness, divorce, and friendship troubles.  It is definitely a more mature novel than I was expecting from the lighthearted cover and description, but I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it to teens 16 and up.  

One of the things I enjoyed most about this book was Sarah Mlynowski's accurate portrayal of the ups and downs of friendships, and that fights can and do happen.  Just because you fight with someone doesn't mean you don't have a good friendship, and Sarah illustrates this perfectly in this novel.  

I highly recommend this book if you're looking for a fun adventure to Europe without actually paying for the trip to Europe!  It was so vividly described, I almost felt like I was there.  It was so much fun!

~ Charlotte

What I'm Reading and Life Update

Hi guys!

So as many of you know, as well as a reader, I'm also getting my bachelor's degree in Viola Performance and working as a professional musician.  So yes -- there has been a severe lack of posts and reading, but there has also been a lot of homework and practicing.

But I am reading!  I'm reading a really wonderful book right now whenever I get time (I actually had a gig with a TON of downtime yesterday which I brought it for and got to spend a lot of time reading it and getting paid as well - perks of being a musician!)  Right now I'm reading I See London I See France -- and yes, I will be finishing and reviewing it soon!

This book is so much fun and making me want to travel!  It's a great escape from all of the craziness of getting a degree in music and still trying to gig and teach.  So far, I totally recommend it!

Book Review: State of Emergency

Rating: 4/5

This book was so much fun to read!  I'm a huge fan of horror, and particularly horror tropes, and this book was really fun because it not only played with these horror tropes, but reveled in them.  State of Emergency follows Dallas and her group of friends as they navigate the zombie apocalypse.  Dallas is a hardcore zombie movie fan and uses her knowledge from movies to help her combat the living dead that are roaming their world.

This book is so fast paced, which is great for survival horror ,and was really well written.  I really enjoyed Mary Hallberg's writing style and was really impressed by this debut novel.

Dallas's character was really fun too.  I really liked the way she used her knowledge of zombie novels, as well as her relationship with Sam and how that eventually played out -- spoiler alert, it was adorable.

I was really impressed with this novel and can't wait for more awesome horror from Mary Hallberg!

A copy of this book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.  The fact that I was given a book by the author has in no way influenced my opinion.  

Book Review: No Love Allowed

Rating: 3.5/5

This book was really fun to read.  It tells the story of Didi, a painter who struggles with mental health, and the boy she agrees to pretend to date.  She and her mom live in Dodge Cove and barely get by, but Caleb Parker, the boy she's pretending to date, is incredibly wealthy and needs her to pretend to be his girlfriend to avoid being swarmed by matchmakers at parties.

But there's one rule -- don't fall in love.

I enjoyed this book.  I thought the premise was a little overdone, but it was well written and the characters were really fun to read.  Didi's character was interesting.  She was unique and fun, but also suffered with her mental health.  The balance between these two was done well, and was put as a subplot which is kind of needed for a romance novel.  It was well handled though and Caleb's reaction to it was sweet and genuine.

Overall, if you're looking for a cute and fluffy romance novel, this is a great pick!  You can't go wrong with books by SwoonReads if you're looking for something cute and fun!

Call for Indie Books!

Hi everyone!

Today I really am wanting to explore more independently published books.  I've been really enjoying the ones I've been getting and just want to help get more authors names out there!  There are so many fabulous books that just aren't getting the attention they deserve -- I want to help with that!

If you are a YA author who is looking for more reviews, email me!  I really want to help you out and get your book out there and help you get more reviews and feedback.  I accept print copies of all genres of YA, and on some occasions will take non YA horror and romance if I'm really interested or passionate about the premise.

Here are some genres on my wishlist:

Cute YA romance!  All the fluffies, I needs them.  I'm going back to school and just want to read happiness and cute romance.

Really gruesome and terrifying horror YA.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, I LOVE horror movies.  Anything like Cabin in the Woods, Until Dawn, Friday the 13th, and anything involving slashers makes me so happy and I really enjoy reading them.  Especially since I really want to start scheming up some good Halloween posts....

YA Fantasy and Steampunk.  Always a fan of these!

YA Dystopian.  I'm not the biggest dystopian reader but if you've got a great and original premise -- GIMME.  I wants it!

Basically any contemporary YA.  I just love cute contemporaries...or serious contemporaries.

If it has unicorns, I needs it.  That is all.

So please indie authors, if you are struggling with reviews, don't hesitate to visit my Review Policy page and shoot me an email!  I would love to help you out and review your books!

~ Charlotte

Book Review: Kiss Cam

Rating: 4.5/5

This book gave me all the feels!  I laughed, I cried (literally, my boyfriend was very concerned),  I smiled uncontrollably and squealed aloud.  This book surprised me in the best way and I adored every page.  This book follows three friends who have a very popular vlog and their zany adventures as they decide to indulge the shippers of two of them - Jasper and Juniper.  Jasiper shippers want more than just what they're getting on screen, and inspire them to do a Kiss Cam against their better judgment.  But can two friends kiss casually and have nothing come from it?

This book had some of the most well written watching-your-crush-date-someone-else scenes I've ever read.  It was so heartwrenching and so painful to read at some points it made me cry.  It was so incredibly well crafted and it's such a hard thing to believably and convincingly write.  This was the first time I've actually cried due to these types of scenes.

The friendship dynamic between the three characters, Juniper, Jasper and Lenny was so well written as well.  Every scene that involved these three quickly became my favorite.  They were all so fun and so cute and so real to read.  I loved the way Kiara London writes and hope she continues writing as I really, really want to continue reading her works!

Top Five Books I'm Bringing to College!

As I'm getting ready to pack and leave for my sophomore year of Music College, I have decided to share some of the books I'm bringing with me so you guys can get an idea of what I'll be reading!

 I'm so excited to read this novel!  I've been a huge fan of both of these authors for a really long time and I'm so happy to have this book along with me for college!

 I LOVE Sandy Hall and books from Swoon Reads so this was an obvious choice.  I have a few others from this publisher that I'm bringing with me but this is by far the one I'm looking forward to most as Sandy Hall is wonderful and always writes adorable and lovable books.

And what would I do without my Queen Maas????  I still haven't read this book so I'll bring it with me to school and give it another go!  So excited for it!

I've been following Elise for quite some time on Twitter and really want to support her by reading and reviewing her series.  As soon as I get a fantasy itch again I'll be picking this up immediately!

Music composition, Goblins, and FANTASY???  Of course I'm interested, what else is new?

So those are the top five books I'm bringing with me!  I'm not bringing that many books, but I am bringing all of my review copies from those lovely authors who have sent me some of their books!  Shoutout to all of you guys and thank you so much -- I cherish every single one and can't wait to read all of them and give them the reviews they deserve!  

~ Charlotte